Page 223 - Stati inu obstati, revija za vprašanja protestantizma, letnik XV (2019), številka 29, ISSN 2590-9754
P. 223
povzetki, synopses, ZUSAMMENFASSUNGEN
three translation paradigms that marked the European learned culture prior to the be-
ginning of the Reformation, as well as the cultural-historical interpretation of the polit-
ical, religious and cultural concept of the translatio. Characteristically, Primož Trubar
re-created the German and / or Latin original in Slovene language in order to produce
a text that he considered to authentically represent the meaning of the original, but for
the sake of textual clarity / comprehensibility for the potential reader, not used to Ger-
man theological style, Trubar did so by means of different and more numerous expres-
sions than he could find in the original. In translation, he therefore used textual trans-
formations of the original - description, re-verbalization, paraphrasing and explana-
tion by means of parable; and as far as lexis is concerned, he was accurately aware of
Germanism – Slovene doublets, but he deliberately refused to give up Germanisms be-
cause of their general use in Slovene language, the pragmatic function of his transla-
tions and understanding which should be as good as possible. Trubar used a combina-
tion of intra- and inter-linguistic translation, even when translating the Bible and sym-
bolic books, which is unusual from the perspective of theological practice in Trubar’s
time. He explained his translation approaches in the prefaces to respective editions, the
most outstanding example being the translation of Confessio augustana and other tex-
tual sources, which form the basis for the Slovenian book Articuli (1562). In this book,
specifically in the chapter originally titled De votis monachorum (in English: Of Mo-
nastic Vows), one can find an extensive intra- and inter-linguistic translation / trans-
formation: the textual structure developed into a stylized story of St. Anton the Her-
mit and the shoemaker. This narrative has the following characteristics: 1) concise nar-
ration, 2) a scant scene without scenic or iconic descriptions (the reader is provided
with no information about the location of St. Anton the Hermit’s residence or Alexan-
dria, nor of the shoemaker’s home where their dialogue is taking place), 3) the happen-
ing is reduced to a single narrative scene, 4) there are only two characters, 5) a struc-
ture in which an intense initial narrative theme is gradually followed by the exposition,
the first gradation, the climax, the anti-climax and resolution, 6) the dialogue between
the two characters. It could very possibly be said that the described narrative structure
overlaps in an almost ‘catalogue’ way with the basic narratological dimensions of the
Renaissance novella. That having been said, Trubar uses the verified rhetorical means
of logos, bound by inductive reasoning - a literally fabulated case, narratively developed
to the degree of a (stylized) novella. According to the current full accessibility of all Slo-
vene texts by Primož Trubar, it can be claimed that the above mentioned passage of Ar-
ticuli is the first literary record of this kind in Slovene literature, the first Slovene novel-
la, which, however, did not have a primary aesthetic, but rather a rhetorically argumen-
tative, i.e. informative function.
Keywords: Primož Trubar, Bible, translation, paradigms, the first Slovenian novella
221
three translation paradigms that marked the European learned culture prior to the be-
ginning of the Reformation, as well as the cultural-historical interpretation of the polit-
ical, religious and cultural concept of the translatio. Characteristically, Primož Trubar
re-created the German and / or Latin original in Slovene language in order to produce
a text that he considered to authentically represent the meaning of the original, but for
the sake of textual clarity / comprehensibility for the potential reader, not used to Ger-
man theological style, Trubar did so by means of different and more numerous expres-
sions than he could find in the original. In translation, he therefore used textual trans-
formations of the original - description, re-verbalization, paraphrasing and explana-
tion by means of parable; and as far as lexis is concerned, he was accurately aware of
Germanism – Slovene doublets, but he deliberately refused to give up Germanisms be-
cause of their general use in Slovene language, the pragmatic function of his transla-
tions and understanding which should be as good as possible. Trubar used a combina-
tion of intra- and inter-linguistic translation, even when translating the Bible and sym-
bolic books, which is unusual from the perspective of theological practice in Trubar’s
time. He explained his translation approaches in the prefaces to respective editions, the
most outstanding example being the translation of Confessio augustana and other tex-
tual sources, which form the basis for the Slovenian book Articuli (1562). In this book,
specifically in the chapter originally titled De votis monachorum (in English: Of Mo-
nastic Vows), one can find an extensive intra- and inter-linguistic translation / trans-
formation: the textual structure developed into a stylized story of St. Anton the Her-
mit and the shoemaker. This narrative has the following characteristics: 1) concise nar-
ration, 2) a scant scene without scenic or iconic descriptions (the reader is provided
with no information about the location of St. Anton the Hermit’s residence or Alexan-
dria, nor of the shoemaker’s home where their dialogue is taking place), 3) the happen-
ing is reduced to a single narrative scene, 4) there are only two characters, 5) a struc-
ture in which an intense initial narrative theme is gradually followed by the exposition,
the first gradation, the climax, the anti-climax and resolution, 6) the dialogue between
the two characters. It could very possibly be said that the described narrative structure
overlaps in an almost ‘catalogue’ way with the basic narratological dimensions of the
Renaissance novella. That having been said, Trubar uses the verified rhetorical means
of logos, bound by inductive reasoning - a literally fabulated case, narratively developed
to the degree of a (stylized) novella. According to the current full accessibility of all Slo-
vene texts by Primož Trubar, it can be claimed that the above mentioned passage of Ar-
ticuli is the first literary record of this kind in Slovene literature, the first Slovene novel-
la, which, however, did not have a primary aesthetic, but rather a rhetorically argumen-
tative, i.e. informative function.
Keywords: Primož Trubar, Bible, translation, paradigms, the first Slovenian novella
221
